Washington Words: Downey’s abrupt departure leaves city dazed

Washington city officials and former City Administrator Richard Downey can’t make public comments about the circumstances surrounding Downey’s Aug. 15 resignation, or the resignation agreement signed by the city and Downey.

The gag order is part of the agreement.

Without more information beyond what’s written in a five-sentence news release distributed Aug. 15 at a Washington City Council meeting, I can’t answer the question I’ve been asked dozens of times the past couple of weeks by Washington residents and others.

“What happened?”

Here’s what we do know:

Downey resigned “to pursue pressing personal and family matters,” according to the news release, after just seven weeks on the job. He missed the Washington City Council’s committee of the whole meeting Aug. 8 and he wasn’t in his office at City Hall that week, so he didn’t actually work for seven weeks. The resignation agreement noted that he was placed on administrative leave before he resigned.

In exchange for Downey agreeing not to sue the city, the city gave Downey seven months’ severance pay (nearly $60,000), six months of COBRA family health insurance coverage if he needs it, and $3,000 for relocation expenses.

Downey also won’t have to reimburse the city a portion of his moving expenses to Washington as called for in his contract, and the city will provide legal services and/or liability insurance in case Downey is sued for something that happened while he was city administrator.

We don’t need to know the details of Downey’s personal and family problems. That’s his business. He’s married and has two young children. These problems must have manifested themselves recently because city officials were excited about bringing Downey on board when they announced his contract agreement May 2.

I do have questions about the resignation agreement, and hopefully they can be answered. Is an agreement like that typical for these types of situations? I couldn’t find anything similar in an online search of other city administrator resignations across the country. If someone who is an expert in these matters could contact me, I’d appreciate it.